1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single sign-on system for an application program, and particularly to a single sign-on system with window-based interface applied in a network-based application program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a company or an organization, a computer user may be required to use several application programs, such as e-mail or database management systems, which require authorization. Generally, these application programs are utilized or operated by the company employees via the network, such as the local area network (LAN). The employees may have various authorities to access the application programs; for example, a finance database management system may authorize employees of the accounting department to look up and modify the data, while no authorization is given to employees of other departments.
Generally, sign-on information such as accounts or passwords are involved for the authorized users (that is, the employees to operate the application programs). Thus, it is easier for the users to identify their authorities in the sign-on process of the application programs.
However, in order to establish confidence and security in authorization, the sign-on information should be kept secret, and it is preferred to use different sign-on information for different application programs. As a result, a user must keep all sign-on information for each application program firmly and clearly in mind. However, it is possible that the user may not complete the sign-on operation successfully, mixing up any part of the sign-on information or different sign-on information for different application programs; thus, being unable to operate the application program. In addition, if a user must use more than one application program, it is necessary to sign on to each application program with its respective sign-on information. This increases time and inconvenience of the sign-on operation.